The Government got the ball rolling for the newly structured NITI Aayog. Chairing the first meeting of the governing council of the Aayog, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Chief Ministers that the priorities are growth, investment, jobs, poverty alleviation, decentralisation, efficiency and no delay in execution of projects.
Saying that his Government plans to move away from ‘one size fits all’ schemes and forge a better match between the schemes and the needs of States, PM offered to transfer some of the 66 Centrally-sponsored schemes, for which Rs3,38,562 crore was provided in 2014-15 to states. A sub-group has been set up to study these 66 schemes and advise Government which to continue, which to transfer, and which to discontinue. More sub-groups will be formed to recommend skill development and creation of jobs within States and on taking forward Government’s cleanliness drive.
The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers and representatives of 31 States and Union Territories. While West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee skipped the meet among those who attended were Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh), Tarun Gogoi (Assam), Parkash Singh Badal, O Panneerselvam (Tamil Nadu), Oommen Chandy (Kerala), Virbhadra Singh (Himachal Pradesh), Jitan Manjhi (Bihar), Navin Patnaik (Orissa), N Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh), Anandiben Patel (Gujarat), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), and Manohar lal Khatter (Haryana).
Addressing them as ‘Team India,’ PM urged the CMs to bury differences and help India achieve high growth and create jobs. Modi promised more funds to States with greater powers on their utilisation. Identifying poverty elimination as the biggest challenge, PM said the new body, which replaced Planning Commission, will forge a model of “co-operative and competitive federalism”.
However, he asked them to address issues delaying projects. PM asked CMs to personally monitor factors impacting project execution and suggested that an officer be identified in each State to monitor and resolve pending issues.
While some of the State CMs demanded more funds, few greater flexibility in central allocations. Chandy said the Aayog should continue with the function performed by the Planning Commission of determining, in consultation with the Finance Ministry and State Governments, the amount of resources to be made available to the States for Plan and Budget preparation.
Observing that the Centre’s ambitious Beti Bachao Abhiyan and Jan Dhan Yojana programmes were not relevant for Kerala as it had already achieved high standards in these area, Chandy asked Modi to allocate the funds meant for such programmes to develop his state’s dwindling agriculture productivity. Chandy also said the states need maximum flexibility to take care of their own specific concerns like second generation issues in education and health sectors or special schemes for ageing population. Tamil Nadu too demanded flexibility in the design of the flagship programmes and limiting the state’s share to 25% for such schemes.
Akhilesh Yadav sought 90% grants for Central schemes saying tough conditions imposed by the Centre in many of its schemes made it difficult for most States to benefit from them. He also urged Centre to make fund allocation process to states more transparent.
Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje suggested having a high-powered committee to co-ordinate schemes and sort of difference between States and Centre in order to help speed up projects. She said that the states should have the flexibility to make schemes for development as per their requirement.